Tethering Your Netbook to Your iPhone
While the Acer Aspire One and other netbooks are small enough to take just about anywhere, the problem is that WiFi isn’t usually available unless you’re at a hotel or coffee shop or a place that specifically provides it. Almost 80% of the time that I’m using my AAO, I’m on the web, or at least using something on the network, like chat or FTP, so without wireless access, the netbook is somewhat pointless.
I have an iPhone which is great for looking up directions or checking movie times, but the Safari browser is pretty limited, and it’s inability to render Flash makes so much of the web inaccessable. But now there’s a way to get the most out of your iPhone’s network and your netbook’s power: tether them.
Now this is something that’s frowned upon by mobile carriers, because you can obviously use quite a bit more data if you’re browsing the web on a full-fledged computer. I’ve heard reports that your “unlimited data plan” is actually about 5GB, and I’ve also heard of people staying under the 5GB and still getting a warning from their carrier that they aren’t allowed to tether (not sure how they’d know). In any case use this at your own risk.
Since tethering isn’t officially permitted on the iPhone data plan, there are no official apps to support it. Netshare was available for a little while and was quickly pulled for violating its contract with the carrier. So if you want to tether, you’re going to have to jailbreak your iPhone. I won’t go into detail about the jailbreaking process, but a quick search on the web would leave you with all the info you need. Through Cydia (which will be installed after you’ve jailbroken), download an application called PDAnet. This program will make your iPhone act as a wireless router. You don’t need to install any applications on your netbook, just set up an adhoc wireless network on your netbook and then connect to it on your iPhone through Settings > WiFi. That’s it! You’re surfing the web on your netbook through your iPhone. The PDAnet application also shows how much data you’ve transfered and received so you can keep an eye on your usage. Happy surfing!
Category: Uncategorized 20 comments »
February 13th, 2009 at 7:51 am
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February 17th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Check this tutorial
http://cgdavila.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/3g-on-the-acer-one-with-iphone/
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:44 am
Nice tutorial on the tethering of the IPhone. I’ve used PDAnet in past when I had a treo phone. Now that I am using the brick (htpc 6700) I can tether via blue tooth to my AA1, along with my other laptops. Its a great to be able to use your wireless plan data services for network connectivity when it spots where other options aren’t available/
May 27th, 2009 at 6:56 am
You might wanna mention that PdaNet is no longer free and the older free versions all had significant problems according to the changelogs. If you don’t register within 15 days, it switches to a reduced functionality mode.
That said, the native tethering of iPhone OS 3.0 (currently in beta 5) works MUCH better via Bluetooth or USB. It can’t tether the phone’s WiFi connection over USB like PdaNet can (effectively turns it into a USB WiFi adapter), which has come in useful a few times already. I guess it wants to maintain your 3G connection rather than jump around so that it will not break your downloads and other connections.
I’m sure that it won’t be free when iPhone OS 3.0 goes public, if your carrier even chooses to offer it in the first place (even in the beta, it is not “visible” by default).
July 20th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
You do not have to jailbrake your iPhone to tether it with your laptop, the iPhone already has tethering built in but the function is hidden. I’m not going to tell you how to do it but the is a strange website that unlocks the feature for you at no cost. I unlocked it on 4 iPhones this week without jailbreaking and it works like a charm ( almost as fast as my wifi )
August 17th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
So I guess I’m an idiot. I tried every way and have been serching for weeks, but there is no apparant way to use my jailbroken iPhone 3g with tmobile ( I used my g1 simcard for my iPhone) to connect my acer one aspire with windows 7 ultimate to the Internet… Remember, I am by no means techno savvy. So can someone pleeease explain to me, if there is a way how to do this? Thaaank yoou:)
August 17th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
and pleease, I don’t want responses about what I ‘might have to do’ I’ve been trying forever now and all sites r the same, saying to try this try that, mabye it’s this, might not be that. I don’t need suggestions just answers. If there is no way that’s good too, I just want to know definatley. Thank you everyone:)
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